Flood Funding Evaporates State Disaster Services Pulls Money To Repair Section Of Lake Coeur D’Alene Parkway

State parks officials are scrambling for money to repair a flood-damaged stretch of Lake Coeur d’Alene Parkway.

Parkway manager Randall Butt learned belatedly that $50,000 in promised aid from the state Bureau of Disaster Services would not be forthcoming.

“That project got thrown into a tizzy,” said Dave Brown of the Natural Resource Conservation Service, whose federal agency is ready to pay for the rest of the $200,000 project. “A couple of weeks ago, they called Randall and said, ‘We’re not going to fund it.’ We’re not sure why.”

There are a dozen other emergency watershed protection projects in the Panhandle this fall. To Brown’s knowledge, the state still is planning to pay for its share of those.

In the wake of last spring’s flooding, Gov. Phil Batt promised that the state would pay the 25 percent in matching money required for federally funded projects.

State officials in Boise couldn’t be reached for more information about the shortfall. Rick Cummings, North Idaho manager for the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department, said he’d heard that the state disaster fund fell short after being inundated with requests for flood-related help.

“I don’t think this project was singled out,” he said.

The governor’s office reportedly will ask the 1998 Legislature for more money. But the parkway repairs can’t wait for that, Cummings said. The shoreline work needs to be done in the winter when the water level of Lake Coeur d’Alene is down.

Extremely high water ate away at the lake’s north shore along the Centennial Trail between the Silver Beach Marina and Tony’s Supper Club.

The roots of some trees have been exposed. If the trees topple, Butt said, that could damage the popular recreation trail, which then would need costly repairs.

Butt is working to find matching funds from other sources. He’s lined up about $40,000 of the $50,000 so far.

“We’re getting financial support from AT&T, which has a fiber-optic line in that area,” he said. “We’re getting help from the Friends of the Centennial Trail Foundation, and Kootenai County is offering an in-kind match.”

The state Parks and Recreation Department also may take money from other parks projects in hopes that the Legislature will repay that money, Butt said.

A final engineering report is being written, he said. Plans call for the placement of a 4-foot wall of boulders, which will be topped by soil and plants to prevent future erosion.

The other Natural Resource Conservation Service emergency watershed protection projects in North Idaho are:

Benewah County - A total of $96,000 in state and federal money is being used to repair the Cherry Creek dike.

Bonner County - A rock-lined ditch was installed to prevent flood-related closures of Bottle Bay Road, costing $20,000. A landslide-prevention project will begin next week at Ponder Point, costing $30,000. A $10,000 project is under way to get Hellroaring Creek back in its channel. And a slide will be repaired off a county road near Priest River, costing an estimated $15,000.

Boundary County - Of seven projects costing $240,000, six have been completed. They are bank stabilization along the Kootenai River and Deep Creek; repairs to three private roads and a bridge, which provide access to homes; and a project to protect a community water system serving four families.

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